Twisted Fate
by chainmailbucket
Summary: Roxas is probably one of the very few people who doesn't want to talk about the band "Twisted Fate". He doesn't care how hot the redheaded lead singer is, or how cool their music is, or even that they're coming to play at their town... Up until someone tries to shoot them.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

No one would stop talking about; the news was all over the city, and everyone was excited.

At least, almost everyone.

"Can you believe our luck?" Olette asked Roxas one day during lunch, twirling her wavy brown hair around a finger. She was absolutely beside herself, rolling back and forth on her feet. "Twisted Fate is coming to Destiny City!"

"I am absolutely going to wear all of my memorabilia," Pence said in a tiny voice held taught with suppressed excitement. His head band had "Twisted Fate" written across it, a pair of fiery chakrams emblazoned for all to see. It was part of the famous (strange) symbol of the world-famous band Twisted Fate, and everyone knew them for it. Pence's headband was one of the few things setting him apart from the dreary uniforms of the school normally, he'd have been wearing one of his endless supply of sports jerseys.

"I'm totally gonna get a picture with them," Hayner said, grinning. Roxas raised an eyeybrow at the teen. He had actually expected Hayner to be against the totally popular band, if just because they were "in". Hayner was well known for being "rebellious", making it a point to stick out from what everyone else was doing. As a testament to this, Hayner wore combat boots with his school uniform (just barely under flagrant disregard) and a camouflage-patterned bracelet. Nearly everything else he owned was similarly patterned.

"You guys are way too into this," Roxas groaned, and they all shook their heads at him.

"You haven't even tried listening to them." Olette sighed dramatically. "Their music is actually… Well, it's amazing."

"It is the most amazing, rockin-est music I've ever heard," Hayner agreed. "Some of their stuff isn't my style, but that's just it- they don't have a single style. They write whatever suits the song!"

Roxas shook his little blonde head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. This stupid concert was going to be the death of him- and it wasn't even like he could just skip out on it.

Destiny High had won in a lucky draw the chance for all the students to go see Twisted Fate for free, during school. It would be held at the massive amphitheater dead center of Destiny City, and the show would cater to thousands. Normally a sports field, it was being outfitted specially.

The whole city was going crazy with preparation. Booths were beginning to crop up, selling over-priced memorabilia. Street performers seemed to have forgotten any other songs by any bands. Even the high school marching band was taking advantage of the situation, performing Twisted Fate's most popular songs at every football game to a raucous cheer (probably more than they'd ever gotten in their life).

The whole city was on Twisted Fate fever.

Except Roxas.

If anyone asked him why he didn't like the band, he didn't really have a reason. He hadn't tried listening to them, and he hadn't tried meeting them, and he'd never been to one of their shows. He didn't know any of their lyrics, or any of their names, or even what they looked like, which was quite possibly a magnificent feat in and of itself. Posters were plastered up everywhere Roxas went, and he still didn't know what a single member looked like.

"There are three," Pence said helpfully one lunch period, as the concert drew nearer. "A guitarist, a singer, and a drummer, though they're all musically talented and often switch up instruments."

"Except when it comes to the Sitar," Olette said dreamily. "Demyx never switches out of the sitar if he can help it."

"True that," Pence laughed. "Though I don't even think the other two know how to play the sitar."

"I don't know how to play the sitar," Roxas said helpfully. The others ignored him.

"Anyway, there's Demyx who's usually on guitar or sitar. Anything stringed, really," Pence added. "He's usually backup vocals too, though he's got a wicked screaming voice."

"Screaming," Roxas repeated in disbelief.

"Oh yeah," Hayner grinned. "And Axel's by far the best drummer in the band."

"Clearly." Roxas was having as great deal of fun being bitter and dry, but his friends (and really, the whole city) were far too excited for his cynicism to get anywhere near them.

"Axel is HOT," Olette breathed. "They say he actually knows how to USE chakers."

"Chakram," Pence corrected immediately.

"Whatever," Olette giggled. "Either way, that'd be really attractive if he could. Talented AND powerful? Too much."

"Riku is the singer of the band," Pence jumped in. "Well, usually. He has the most diverse voice of them, though he also plays keyboards and back-up guitar. He's a really good DJ too, so I hear," he said. All three of them sighed dramatically, clearly of the opinion that the show couldn't come soon enough.

Roxas loosened the blue tie that was standard uniform for all the students, shaking his little blonde head at them.

"I'll see you guys in math class," he said in disgust.

As the day drew ever nearer- now a week away, and still no sign of the tour bus (though Roxas privately believed that the band had already showed up and were just in hiding)- the students began to get restless. And not just the students, either; the teachers were beginning to talk incessantly of the band. Roxas was absolutely sure that he was the only person who wasn't interested at all.

An announcement over the speakers the last Friday before the concert brought the whole school to near hysteria. "No uniforms" it said, "on the day of the concert". This was ecstatic news, especially for the girls; now, it would be entirely possible for them to be as attractive as possible, in the hopes of catching the eyes of the members of Twisted Fate.

Roxas was sure his life was going to be thrown upside down, and he along with it. He was almost positive that he would begin falling into the sky any minute now.

While Roxas was at home practicing the guitar (and avoiding every media instrument in the house) late Saturday evening, his trio of friends came to pounce. They demanded to know what he was going to wear to the upcoming concert.

"You HAVE to look absolutely your best," Olette demanded. She refused to show them any pictures of her outfit, saying that to tell would be to ruin the surprise. "It could be possible that you or one of them turns out to be, you know. Gay." Olette giggled as Hayner nudged Roxas in the side, waggling his eyebrows.

"I'm going to punch you, and I won't care that you're a girl," Roxas said blandly. "You know I'm not-"

"Would you stop your moping?" Hayner groaned, interrupting Roxas completely. "You're such a buzz kill. Pence, look through his closet." Roxas didn't even attempt to stop his friend from rummaging. He didn't have a very large selection, so he'd be done shortly anyway.

"Good lord," Pence said in true form, face horrified. "Have you no fashion sense?"

"I wear a uniform almost every single day of my life," Roxas pointed out. "When the hell am I going to wear anything else?"

All three of his friends looked down at his extremely disappointing grey tank top and black sweats.

"It's a Saturday!" He whined. "Why the hell am I going to look good on a Saturday?!"

"You need to get out more." Hayner crossed his arms and shook his head.

"This is very saddening," Olette said, sighing, "But I happen to know that I gifted you with a very snazzy outfit last year for your birthday."

Roxas winced. It wasn't that it was unattractive- Olette had very good taste in clothes, especially when it came to choosing for other people- but he definitely didn't like having other people dress him.

Olette jumped into his closet and fished out the still pristine set of clothes.

"Have you even worn these?" she demanded.

"Would you like me to repeat myself, or can you already hear the snark?" Roxas said belligerently.

"We can ALWAYS hear the snark," Pence pointed out, and Hayner and Olette laughed in return.

Roxas sighed. This concert really was going to be the death of him.

The day of the concert did not dawn with meteors and a rain of fire, despite Roxas's wishes. He glanced outside, but the day had started off bright and sunny with nary a cloud in sight. This was actually pretty impressive; it was constantly raining in Destiny City.

Roxas was about to pull out his uniform when the clothes that Olette had painstakingly picked out for him fell out and onto the floor before him. With a pained sigh, Roxas picked them up and moved into the bathroom.

Thirty minutes and a long-suffering series of dramatic sighs later, Roxas emerged a totally different person.

His blonde hair was, of course, spiked up as always, but that was about all that resembled his usual self. At least, not entirely.

He wore a black T-shirt that had a checkered design going down the left-hand corner, and a checker choker around his neck. A signature checkered ring adorned two of his right-hand fingers and one of his left-hand fingers. Black jeans that were tight where it mattered and loose where it should be (thank the gods) came down to black boots that pulled half-way up his calves. Olette had knowingly gotten him ones that had a zipper in the back; Roxas was notoriously lazy. Atop the shirt was a white vest with a matching splash of checkering in the right-hand corner and the back, slightly shorter than the T-shirt.

Olette's mother was a fashion-designer, so Roxas knew she hadn't really paid a whole lot for the ensemble. Still, it was more than likely a custom set, and he was a little ashamed that he hadn't worn it more. It really was a comfortable fit, and it matched his tastes superbly (i.e. the checkered patterning- he didn't understand why, but he had a serious thing for checkered patterns). He was honestly surprised that her mother had gone through the trouble for him, though she often did the same for Hayner and Pence. It was probably because Roxas's family could never have afforded something like this… Or was he being bitter again?

Roxas tramped down the stairs, grabbing his black and white checkered backpack before thinking better of it. He instead grabbed his phone and wallet, pocketing them, and ran into the kitchen for a quick bite. He wasn't exactly late, but he didn't want to push his luck.

"Shouldn't you be on your way?"

Roxas nearly tripped and sprawled across the kitchen floor at the sound of his older brother's voice coming from the direction of his room, which was directly connected with the kitchen.

Cloud was some sort of high-up police officer or security person- he never really explained his career to Roxas, and he always changed the subject when the blonde-haired boy asked- and he worked late at night. He was hardly ever up this early. Or during the day at all.

"You should be asleep," Roxas said to make his point, taking in the completely bedraggled appearance of his brother. Cloud's normally spikey hair was drooping past his face, making him look almost feminine. That effect was ruined by the absolutely defined musculature of his chest, abs and arms. His legs were much the same, but these were covered in fluffy bunny pajama bottoms. Roxas pointed to theses and smirked, saying "Nice."

"Shut up, twerp," Cloud snorted, ruffling the boy's hair. "I wanted to make sure you weren't going to skip out on today."

"Now why would I ever do something like that?"

"I don't know." Cloud rubbed his chin in mock thought. "It could be your latest hit single, 'I really fucking hate Twisted Fate'."

"Oh. You heard that?" Roxas snorted and grabbed a nearby muffin, stuffing it into his mouth. "I made that up like last week, when were you home to hear it?"

"You'd be surprised twerp." Cloud snatched an apple and threw it at his little brother, who caught it easily. "Eat that instead. Also, I thought the rhyme worked out really nicely."

"Thank you for noticing," Roxas said with a mocking bow. "I do my best. Anyway, Cloud, it was good to hang and see you for once, but I'm officially going to be late."

"Nah," Cloud said after a second, and an evil grin lit up his face. "Wait right there."

Roxas groaned as his older brother darted back into his room.

They were taking the motorcycle.

* * *

**A/N: **So uh. I have no idea if this file format looks weird, or if it will post correctly, because this was all so confusing. You'd think I'd be used to this. "But Kitfoxpup, what about your fifty billion other stories?" Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh... SHHHHHHHHHH... This one is actually really far along, although I don't know if I'm a fan of it. My writing lately... I haven't really liked it. At all.

All well. It was requested, so here you go!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ten minutes and an "I've definitely missed the bus at this point" from Roxas, the two were seated on a massive custom bike that was definitely not a street model. Cloud wasn't really supposed to drive it in public except in emergencies, but he made his peace with this rule by saying that a little bit of excitement was good for the boring people of Destiny City.

The bike roared out of the garage, quite possibly waking up anyone who wasn't already awake or had tried going back to sleep in a three mile radius. Roxas clung to Cloud for dear life; the bike- called Fenrir by Cloud- rose immediately to well beyond the speed limit of main street standards and pulled smoothly out into the road, racing onto the main street and darting past and between vehicles at lightning speed. Roxas was sure he was going to vomit. Or faint. Or both.

Cloud seemed to be enjoying the looks of shock. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying everyone's discomfort with the military-grade bike, including Roxas's.

"You gotta let up, Rox," he laughed. "I can't breathe."

"IF YOU CAN LAUGH YOU CAN BREATHE," Roxas roared, and Cloud responded with another throaty laugh.

They got to the school before students had even started boarding, Cloud pulling what was most likely an illegal move and spinning the bike into a parking space right next to the bus. The force of the move would have completely unseated Roxas from the motorcycle, but it appeared that Big Brother had thought of this. He tapped the accelerator, and Roxas- currently falling off of the bike- followed the movement. This gave the appearance that Roxas had hopped off the bike fluidly while it was still in motion, making him look far more badass than what had really occurred.

"Try and have some fun, Rox," Cloud called, laughing at Roxas's absolutely murderous expression before turning Fenrir back on and roaring off into the distance.

"I'm going to kill him," Roxas said in a strangled voice. "I'm going to kill him and then burn that bike and dance on both of their ashes."

"Roxas!"

The blonde turned to see Hayner, Olette, and Pence waving to him from a somewhere in the line. Everyone else was staring in blatant shock and admiration, though if they'd known the truth they'd have probably been dying of laughter. Roxas wasn't yet sure that he hadn't wet himself.

He walked as calmly as he could to go and stand with them, but it was definitely a hard task. His legs felt as though they were going to fall right off, and his heart felt as if it were about to burst.

"I thought you hated Cloud's motorcycle," Olette said once Roxas had joined them.

"I do." Roxas shuddered. "That was a horrible experience. It took me longer to get ready than I'd originally hoped for," he added, looking with discomfort at his nice clothes. He could see that some of the students were now ogling his ensemble. High school was a bucket-load of fun and jdugement.

"You look fine, dude," Hayner drawled. Roxas noticed that the rebellious teen was also wearing one of Olette's mother's sets of clothes. Hayner also came from a poorer family, but unlike Roxas he never looked free clothes in the mouth. He was adorned in his favorite camo patterning, though it was a nice black and green mix. Skin-tight jeans- something Hayner would almost never be caught dead in- finished off the look with a chain hanging from his belt loops. Combat boots were laced up his legs, though those in truth were his own and therefore worn half to death. He looked exactly how he felt he should look: rebellious.

"Your mom is really talented," Pence added, nodding in appreciation at Roxas's outfit. He was wearing a full set of Twisted Fate clothing pieces, from his headband to his shoes. It was borderline creepy.

"I know," Olette giggled. "Still, it takes the fun out of shopping. No one makes clothes like my mom." Olette's favorite color was orange, and it showed in a pretty tank top with hibiscus designs and a cute flare at the bottom. Her skirt was long enough to be considered classy but short enough to be considered cute and had light orange and white highlights. Sandals covered her feet. In all, it was a simple design, but it made her come off as very sweet, cute, and mature. Glancing down the line, Roxas could see that many girls were more than making up for Olette's sense of modesty. He was actually shocked some of them hadn't been sent home.

The line began moving then, and they all moved toward the first bus, the excitement beginning to mount. The concert wasn't really going to start until about 12 noon, but the drive to the stadium would no doubt take an hour in the morning's traffic, and the school was required to get there early for their seating. People had most likely slept overnight outside the entrance, so they weren't going to enjoy the fact that a bunch of high school teens were essentially cutting in front of them.

"I'm so excited," Olette squealed. "I practiced singing all of the lyrics to my favorite CD's last night."

"That's a lot of CD's," Roxas snorted, who knew enough to know that Olette had at least 4 of Twisted Fate's CD's, two of which were signed copies.

"Okay, so maybe I skipped my least favorites and stuck to the really good ones, but if I'd had more time I would have sung them all!" She jumped for emphasis. A sudden hand appeared on Roxas's shoulder, and he jumped about a mile high. Judging by the weight of it, it was none-other than the school's own Seifer, the head of the discipline committee.

"You losers are so adorable," a mocking voice drawled out, and Roxas looked up to see that he'd been right. Such a shame that Seifer towered over almost all of them, let alone Roxas. "You think you actually have a chance of being noticed by Twisted Fate?"

"Nope," Roxas immediately cut in, and his friends rolled their eyes. Seifer raised an eyebrow.

"Well, look who's the little rebel today," he grinned, shaking Roxas's shoulder a bit. As he'd of course known, Roxas was shaken nearly off of his feet; he was very light weight, and Seifer was very strong. Hayner had to jump forward to steady Roxas when the bigger teen decided to let go, nearly flinging the smaller blonde forward.

"Piss off, Seifer," Pence muttered. "You're such an ass."

"Says Fanboy of the century," Seifer mocked, and his two goons- having suddenly appeared, never far from their slightly smarter master- laughed in tandem behind him. Fuu was a violet-haired girl who was always very quiet and kept mostly to herself. She and Rai, an oafish idiot whose insults were never particularly varied, never strayed far from Seifer, who they very absurdly worshipped. Not that they were the only ones; the richest kid in school, Seifer was known for "rewarding" students who treated him the way he believed he should be treated. Which meant that Seifer took great pleasure in pissing off Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They seemed to be the only ones who weren't desperate to kiss his ass.

"No admittance," Fuu called out in a gleeful voice, and Seifer grinned manically. Almost immediately, Roxas suspected that this had been the sole reason for his coming to them, and that Roxas was going to have to pay for it. It usually wound up that way, with Roxas having to make a deal with Seifer (unbeknownst to his friends) to get them out of trouble. Seifer might have been an ass, but he held a great deal of sway and power that no teenager should ever be able to hold. Roxas was only slightly more relieved than frustrated that Seifer's love of making Roxas suffer outweighed making his friends suffer.

"That isn't such a bad idea," Seifer said, rubbing his chin. He gave Roxas a particularly malicious look, and the teen knew that he had been entirely correct in his assumption. He had to work very hard to suppress a very angry growl.

"What isn't?" Hayner demanded.

"You losers never treat me with the right respect." Seifer managed to make his tone sound insulted and injured, dripping with entirely false innocence. "I honestly don't think that you lot should even get to GO to the concert."

The color drained out of the other three's faces, and Roxas's heart nearly broke. He might act like an uncaring asshole, but Roxas wanted nothing more than to see his friends happy and joyful.

"You can't do that," Olette whispered, but Seifer just laughed, the line beginning to move ever so slowly forward again. His blue eyes twinkled maliciously.

"My dad owns the stadium," he said pointedly. He didn't even need to add anything to his voice; the implication carried all the weight he needed. "I can do that."

"Oh," Olette whispered, and it looked as if she might cry.

"Seifer," Roxas started to say in a heated voice, but the taller teen shook his head, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders.

"Let's talk, Roxas," he said, and the blonde ground his teeth. He didn't look at his friends as the taller boy dragged him off, leaving Fuu and Rai to poke and make fun of the rest of Roxas's gang.

"You're a dick," Roxas spat once they'd gotten out of earshot. He immediately tore away from Seifer. "Why do you like ruining people's happiness so much?"

"Because it isn't mine," Seifer said, and for once a look of pure darkness covered his expression. Roxas blinked, taken aback. Sometimes the teen said things when they were alone that belied a deep sort of misery that Roxas wasn't sure he liked. He almost pitied it.

Almost.

"Don't do this to them, Seifer." Roxas shook his head. "They want this so bad. This stupid concert means everything to them."

"But not to you?" The shadow passed, and Seifer looked at Roxas askance, a grin growing. "I'd wager you want this concert more than you admit. You want to have that memory with your friends."

Sometimes- just sometimes- Roxas was reminded that Seifer wasn't actually a complete idiot. He balled his fists and kept his eyes on Seifer's, something that was definitely humiliating to do on account of size differences. The taller teen lowered his head so they were eye-to-eye.

"How about you prove to me just how happy you want them to be," he said quietly. "I'm not banning you… But I'd suggest you find a way to skip out on this concert."

Roxas let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. It felt as if something inside had sunk. Why was he so upset? He'd been complaining about this stupid concert for weeks. Although if he was being honest with himself, Roxas knew that the reason was all that difficult to grasp.

Seifer, of course, had been right. Roxas couldn't have cared if the concert had been done by magic mushrooms or singing cows- he wanted that memory with his friends.

A single glance over at the three uncomfortable and frightened teens that he cared for above almost all else told him exactly what he would do, as if he hadn't already known.

"Deal," he said quietly, and Seifer's face split into a grin.

"I love these little deals we make," Seifer gloated. "They make me feel so good."

"At least one of us does." Roxas turned away and walked back to his friends, his feet almost dragging. Seifer followed a little behind, for once letting Roxas go without humiliating him further.

"Roxas?" Olette looked at him with fear in her eyes.

"I've decided out of the good of my heart to let you losers be," Seifer drawled. He put a hand on a shoulder each of Fuu and Rai. "For today, anyway."

"What did you do?" Hayner demanded once Seifer had moved away.

"Nothing." Roxas shrugged, looking away from their anguished faces. The less they knew of Roxas's "dealings" with Seifer, the better. He liked them happy and carefree more than he liked them bitter and let down. "Just had to yell at him a bit."

"Didn't look like yelling," Olette whispered.

"Didn't want anyone to know how much of a baby he really is." Roxas grinned, but his friends didn't smile back.

"Roxas…" Pence started to say, but it was their turn to get on the bus. Roxas forged ahead, his face straight. This was just like any other time Seifer had made him suffer. This wasn't anything new- Seifer had been picking on Roxas since they were five, and Roxas's parents had died. He seemed intent on reminding the boy that his life was better than Roxas's and that it always would be.

Roxas wound up sitting with Hayner, who seemed uncomfortable to say the least. Pence and Olette were seated a few rows forward, and they kept shooting Roxas concerned glances. It was more than he could bear, and Roxas finally decided to lean against the window and pretend he was asleep. Leave it to Seifer to ruin even more of the day without even trying.

* * *

**A/N: **Don't forget to R and R, Read and Review!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**A/N: PRESENT ME: This story was on hiatus for a LONG time because my computer crashed and my external basically died. I lost like, 20 chapters or something similar, and the only other copies that existed were spread out across a facebook page and separated by like... 50 posts. It was a bit too depressing to come back to. However just now, I went and looked in an old folder I had salvaged, and it was called "KHMusicianStory". I was like OH GODS YES.**

**I've not edited this story in like, 2 years. However, I remember loving it up to a certain point, so I'm going to post probably the next five chapter over the next week or two as I read them. I know there was a point where I started hating it lawl, I just don't remember where. Anyway, here's a message from past me!**

Well, this is getting Angsty. Definitely didn't plan for it to. Seems my Inner Roxas has come out from hibernation after all. I honestly think he likes destroying his own happiness a little too much.

The bus ride wasn't as agonizing as Roxas had envisioned. Roxas did actually fall asleep for about an hour, tired out from his experience with Seifer as he almost always was. Hayner eventually got over the awkwardness of the situation- or forgot, which was entirely possible- and started going on and on about the concert. They wound up spending much of the ride laughing and joking, and eventually even Pence and Olette were smiling up front as well.

They reached the stadium in no time, and the throng of people standing outside it was beyond unebelievable. Roxas's intuition had been spot on- no one was happy that about thirty high schoolers got to get in way before the rest of the public. There was a lot of jostling and shoving, and there were people everywhere. Roxas knew that if he was going to lose his friends, he'd have to do it now- but part of him hoped that Seifer would lose sight of the quartet as they pushed forward.

His hopes were dashed as they neared the entrance and Roxas saw Seifer standing by the front, next to a man with a very official looking clipboard. Fuu and Rai flanked him on either side, and to Roxas's immediate dismay he saw Seifer's blue eyes narrow on him. Those icy cold eyes immediately sidled over to the blonde's friends, and he started to lean into the man with the clipboard, as if to say something.

Roxas took the point immediately. He looked at his excited friends one last time before suddenly shoving backwards. Everyone was so excited about the concert that he was swallowed up by the crowd almost immediately, and his friends hadn't yet noticed. It wouldn't be long before they did, however, so Roxas darted from the crowd of high schoolers and into the surrounding throng of people. So packed and crowded was it that none of the chaperoning teachers even noticed Roxas making a break for it. Being small had its major advantages.

It took several tens of minutes of shoving until Roxas made it to some sort of wall. He had to pause to catch his breath, completely winded, but by this point he was almost entirely lost. He could tell that this was definitely still the stadium, but he had no idea where to go from here. The buses had left to go do their rounds and wouldn't be back until the end of the concert, and Roxas realized that he had no idea of where he was going to go next. Cloud would kill him if he knew about Roxas's current (mostly self-inflicted) predicament.

His attention was immediately caught by movement in the crowd, a surge that was making its way toward him. His eyes widened; two massive men were shoving through the mass, and for all intents and purposes they were making their way directly toward the blonde-haired boy.

The more sane part of Roxas's mind argued that this was ridiculous and there was no reason for anyone to be coming after Roxas, but one of the men gestured toward the blonde's current position. The other man looked up and spoke into a headset at the side of his face, and Roxas's intuition told him it might not be a good idea to stick around. Call him paranoid, but he didn't like the look of the bigger men.

Darting back into the crowd, Roxas used his extremely slim size to begin weaving between and under people. People squawked in surprise, but Roxas was gone before anyone could really protest. He had no idea what direction he was going in or even where he would end up, but he kept moving, determined not to find out what those men wanted. Cloud had always taught him that if it seemed as if someone was after him, run first and ask questions later.

All of a sudden the crowd ended, a sheer ending like a cliff, and Roxas fell forward in surprise. His momentum carrying him far more forward than he'd meant it to, Roxas suddenly slammed into something very solid. It was apparently a person, because they grabbed him almost immediately.

"Whoa there!" a voice grunted.

Strong, wiry hands gripped Roxas by his wrists before yanking him back up on his feet. Once free, Roxas placed the palms of his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.

"Crap," he breathed, completely winded. "I am SO out of shape."

"Whatcha' runnin' from?" the voice asked curiously. It was deep and masculine, and an undercurrent of playfulness ran through it, reminding Roxas vaguely of a cat. If cats could talk, of course.

"Not sure," Roxas gasped. He looked over his shoulder and could see the two big men moving through the crowd, as if they were looking for something. Or someone. "No way he hates me THAT much," the blonde murmured. He turned to face his somewhat-savior, still trying to catch his breath.

A tall teen stood in front of him, arms crossed and hidden beneath a large black hoodie. It covered most of him, but being as short as he was Roxas could see up into the hood. Red hair peeked out from underneath it, and brilliant green eyes glittered at the blonde in deep amusement. He was abnormally thin, and he was also annoyingly familiar to Roxas.

"Do I know you?" Roxas asked, cocking his head. A spasm of surprise flickered across the redhead's features, and he had to duck to keep from laughing aloud. Taken aback, Roxas just watched the weird reaction.

"No," the teen finally said, "you don't. At least, I don't know you."

_Weird way to answer a question,_ Roxas thought to himself. He brushed it off, glancing over his shoulder again. The big men were getting nearer.

"Thanks for helping me," he said, still facing the men, "but I have to think of a way out of this."

"That's easy." Roxas whirled around to see that a very wry redhead was suddenly within inches of his face. "I can fix that."

Before Roxas could say anything, the redhead grabbed him by the wrist and darted backwards. Despite being as skinny as a twig, he was incredibly strong, and Roxas didn't have enough momentum to pull his wrist out of the bigger teen's hand. At any rate, he was pulling Roxas around a corner of the Stadium wall and down a hidden alley, easy to miss because of how narrow it was. He jumped over a fallen crate, pausing only to make sure that Roxas didn't land on his face, before dragging him off again. Down another twist, and Roxas was beginning to get lost again; he didn't have a head for remembering directions.

Just as Roxas was beginning to think he was being kidnapped, the tall redheaded teen suddenly stopped, sending the poor blonde crashing headfirst into him.

"You sure are clumsy," he laughed, and Roxas immediately pushed himself off, face red in embarrassment.

"Where the heck are we?" he demanded, choosing to ignore the teen's comment.

"You'll see." Green eyes sparkling playfully, the boy pulled open a door he'd been standing in front of and paused. "Unless, you know, you want to stay out here."

Roxas took one look around and knew that wasn't a good idea. He had no idea where he was and no idea how to get back; it looked like some sort of side entrance to the stadium. How this kid knew about it, Roxas had no idea, but at least he wasn't stuck running from massive body-builders.

"I'll pass." Roxas walked into the dark doorway after the redhead.

He almost immediately regretted this decision; the teen slammed the door, and everything went pitch dark.

"Where-"

"This way." A hand grabbed Roxas's wrist again, and he was being propelled through the darkness almost as quickly as before.

Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy to be careful this time. Roxas tripped over nearly everything they passed, including a few random people who might have been workers. The redhead had to catch Roxas more than once, much to the blonde's immense embarrassment. At some point, things began to get brighter, and suddenly Roxas was shepherded through a sudden door and into a room he wasn't really expecting.

There were two other teens in the room right then, but Roxas was still blinking from the sudden change of lighting. It took him a moment to be able to see them.

One of the teens was only slightly shorter than the crazy kid pulling Roxas along, and his blonde hair was styled in a mullet. This was the first thing Roxas noticed about him, because honestly, who the hell wears their hair in a mullet anymore?

The second teen was even weirder. He had shoulder length white hair and piercing blue eyes, and he looked like the most serious person Roxas had ever met- a complete opposite to whoever was holding onto Roxas.

Things were officially off the weird charts.

"Where- what- who-" Roxas put his palms on his knees again. "I need a minute."

"You alright shorty?" the teen who'd dragged him there snickered. "You get tired so quickly."

"Axel, who the hell is this?" the silver haired teen demanded. Roxas froze instantly, blue eyes wide.

"Found him outside," the redheaded teen- and Roxas now knew why he was so familiar- chirped. "He was in trouble, so I brought him here."

"You're gonna be in trouble in like five minutes!" the mullet-haired teen laughed. "Riku's going to kick your ASS."

"Oh shut up, Demyx," the silver-haired teen- named Riku, of course- snapped. He turned back to Axel. "You can't just bring people in here!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Roxas said, immediately backing up. He stared at the three and suddenly noticed that the mullet-haired teen- Demyx- was holding a really bizarrely shaped guitar. A sitar. "WHOA WHOA- you mean you're-" he jabbed a finger at the redhaired teen's chest- "YOU'RE AXEL? As in, the drummer or whatever of- of-"

"Twisted Fate," the redhead said, grinning wolfishly. "Yeah. That's me."


End file.
